Sean Riley is an Australian

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

Early life

Riley was born in 1967 in

Burnie Burnie is a port city on the north-west coast of Tasmania, Australia. When founded in 1827, it was named Emu Bay, being renamed after William Burnie, a director of the Van Diemen's Land Company, in the early 1840s. , Burnie had an urban pop ...

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

Works

In December 1991 he directed a production of his own play, ''Eat Me'', for Unley Youth Theatre. ''Beautiful Words'' was a commissioned work written over a four-year period from 2001, leading to a full production in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

in May 2006. It is described as "an inter-related trilogy of plays which explores the refugee experience through the eyes of three separate children". Their stories of survival, span different times and places: Auschwitz, Afghanistan, and Australia. The first of these, ''Zugang'' was first performed as a

play reading A stage reading, also known as a staged reading, is a form of theatre without sets or full costumes. The actors, who read from scripts, may be seated, stand in fixed positions, or incorporate minimal stage movement. There is an overlap with t ...

in October 2002 at Majestic Cinemas in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. It was again performed in February 2016 by SAYarts at the

Goodwood Institute Unley is an inner-southern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, within the City of Unley. The suburb is the home of the Sturt Football Club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). Unley neighbours Adelaide Park Lands, Full ...

in Adelaide. His play ''The Angel & the Red Priest'' was performed as part of the 2008

Adelaide Festival of Arts The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...

. His work ''Warren'' was the last production due to be performed by Urban Myth Theatre Company (the renamed Unley Youth Theatre) in 2014, and when the company was dissolved, Riley was one of the co-founders of a new theatre collective, SAYarts, along with Urban Myth general manager Bec Pannell and others. SAYarts has staged performances in

DreamBIG DreamBIG Children's Festival, formerly Come Out Festival or Come Out Children's Festival, is a large biennial arts festival for schools and families held in South Australia. It began as the Come Out Festival in 1974 as part of the Adelaide Festi ...

, AGSA Neo,

WOMADelaide WOMADelaide is an annual four-day festival of Music, Arts and Dance, which was first held in 1992 in Botanic Park, Adelaide, Botanic Park, Adelaide, South Australia. One of many WOMAD festivals held around the world, it is a four-day event that p ...

, as well as presenting several original shows each year. Other plays written by Riley include ''The Sad Ballad of Penny Dreadful'' (presented by

Windmill Performing Arts Windmill Theatre Co (previously known as Windmill Performing Arts), established in 2002 as a Government of South Australia, South Australian Government initiative, is Australia's flagship professional theatre company for children, child and You ...

in January 2006), ''My Sister Violet'' (presented by the

Urban Myth Theatre of Youth Urban Myth Theatre Company, formerly named Unley Youth Theatre and then Urban Myth Theatre of Youth, was a youth theatre company in Adelaide, South Australia. It was often referred to as simply Urban Myth. History Unley Youth Theatre was ...

in 2005), ''The Last Acre'' (2003), and ''The Time of Ashes'' (2001).

References

Australian dramatists and playwrights Living people 1967 births {{playwright-stub